"There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action. All gentle souls must admire and respect one another, saying: 'Let us each proceed along our path to the same goal, united in purpose, and by the means of God's plan which, in its great variety, is in us all."
Jean-Pierre de Caussade

25 June 2015

The Bucket Shop managed to hold gold below the 1180 level, thereby allowing most of the calls for the option expiration to go out worthless. Oh well done.

There was intraday commentary about the Greek situation which may be actually coming to some sort of resolution over the next few weeks. You may read that here.

The Supreme Court upheld 'Obamacare' today, from a highly technical objection about some wording. Despite Scalia's thuggish rant, it really was a no-brainer. At the end of the day it is better than nothing but not by much.

It is a hand-crafted piece of legislation from the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry that was spawned by the conservative corporatists and adopted by Barack 'Sell Out' Obama. Same thing for the TPP by the way, which is why it was so easy for him to team up with the House GOP to defeat his own progressives. Honor and service go begging when everyone is out for gettin' paid.

I had to laugh when I read that this is the most liberal Supreme Court in so many years. The Citizen's United boys? That is about as Orwellian it gets.

Now that they have joined to pass the corporatist TPP, the Wall Strett Dems and Republicans can get back to role playing their opposition, and whipping their ardent constituencies into frothing yahoos who will continue to go out and vote for their own demise.

In other words, if the rubes keep buying it, they will keep selling it. Just like Comex precious metal options.

I have included the statistics for the July 15 Comex Gold Calls and Puts from Last Friday when gold was about 1202 in the first two charts below.

I remember when I first looked at the distribution of the open interest on the right of them. I was stunned at the size of the option open interest because July is not a big or active contract month for gold. That comes in August. As you know in my commentary I initially dismissed the significance of this option expiration for gold because of it.

And I remember vividly thinking to myself, 'they are going to take the price of gold down below 1180 into the expiration. There is nothing to stop them in the futures contracts, no really buying pressure, and the options look like a setup. Who the heck is writing and buying these things?'

And so here we are.

Obviously the details of exactly who was buying and selling what is the key, as the apologists for the Wall Street kleptocracy like to say, hiding the truth behind the opacity of unfree markets. But the action was concentrated enough on a 'nothing contract month' to raise a skeptical eyebrow or two.

Le Propriétaire

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Need Little - Want Less - Love More

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.

"In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack even on the least of men is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all. Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"A credibility trap is when the managerial functions of a society have been sufficiently compromised by corruption so that the leadership cannot reform, or even honestly address, the problems of that system without implicating a broad swath of the powerful, including themselves.

The moneyed interests and their aspirants tolerate the corruption because they have profited from it, and would like to continue to do so. Discipline is maintained by various forms of soft financial rewards and career and social coercion."

These are personal observations about the economy and the markets. In providing information, I hope this allows you to make your own decisions in an informed manner, even if it is from learning by my mistakes, which are many. As a standing policy I never provide individual investment advice to anyone. I will only occasionally disclose my personal positions for purposes of illustration. Understand that my own circumstances could differ greatly from your own, and therefore what is suitable for me may not be suitable for you. My comments are intended to be reflection on general macro financial and economic events and trends.